Yelp buys Eat24 for $134 million

CEO Jeremy Stoppelman from Yelp speaks about the future of innovation at Dreamforce 2014 in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, October 13, 2014. Photo: The Chronicle/Liz Hafalia

The latest step in Yelp‘s quest to become the interweb’s one-stop shop for all things restaurant-related is the San Francisco’s company’s purchase of San Bruno-based Eat24.

The transaction, announced today, is valued at roughly $134 million. Yelp, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, has had a partnership with Eat24 since 2013, but now the two companies are taking the next step and making it official.

In a blog post, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman described how Eat24 will impact Yelp:

Online and mobile food ordering is still in its infancy and restaurant and food searches are extremely popular on Yelp. We believe that the acquisition of Eat24 will allow us to build a better, more seamless ordering experience for consumers that we can grow through 2015 and beyond.

In many ways, the Eat24 move carries similarities to Yelp’s push to get into the online reservation game with SeatMe, which it squired in 2013.

First and foremost, as mentioned above, it’s yet another tool for Yelp’s growing toolbox of toys; the company has made no bones about its desire to become an all-inclusive resource.

Secondly, Eat24 gives Yelp an important new revenue stream, beyond its often-controversial advertising one. It’s no secret that despite its revolutionary user review platform, Yelp has always struggled to make money. And also like SeatMe, the move — a direct challenge to GrubHub, Seamless and similar online ordering services — is expected to help Yelp in establishing new contact points with restaurants.

So when the Eat24 delivery takes too long, does this mean that Yelpers will file negative reviews about Yelp itself?